Damien at the Speed of Life – DATSOL

I started “blog hopping” this afternoon and there were so many loading and spelling issues I just had to stop. The great thing about blogs and self-publishing is that I have access to every Tom, Dick, and Jane out there writing content. That is also the not-so-great thing. Because anyone can publish a blog and get it “out there” there are some real eyesores that I have to bellyache, I hope I don’t offend anyone:

1. Homonyms misspelled: to=preposition too=Modifier of degree two=2 / there=place their=possessive they’re=contraction they are You/You’re: Your is possessive. “Is that your hat?” You’re is a contraction for you are. “You’re wrong.” Then/Than: “Then you’d like to go over this later rather than right now.” Its/It’s: Again, possession is the name of the game when it comes to its.
2. Too much on sidebar=long load times. Do you really need all that stuff? Take inventory and dump the stuff not helping you achieve your goals.
3. A completely untouched free theme. Come on now, can’t you at least put a feedburner brick in there to make it your own? How will we know it’s not spam? Take a little time to read a tutorial on Wordpress, html, php, or tweaking themes in general.
4. Less than 60 word posts. Why waste my time?
5. Poorly designed. Columns overlap etc. Take your writing serious enough to put it in a nicely structured theme.
6. Cussing. I just don’t like it. I think I have one cuss-word in my blogs and it’s like damn or something. Dooce can bite me if she doesn’t like it. I’m me, she’s … well, her.
7. Flaunted, unbridled, giddiness. Ever catch a load of this in your travels and assume you accidentally became a member or something you weren’t invited to read?
8. I apologize in advance for this one but I just have to say it because it bothers me in an irrational way: When I just did a paid OPP and come to find the same person did it with 1/2 the quality and probably got approved and paid the same as me who spent a long time. (I’m a grouch huh?)
9. Angry posts with no real point.
10. and finally … my last gripe about blogs out there is: pop-up-blog-newsletter-subscriptions (esp. seo ones) !!!!
11. Okay, I lied … one last gripe: Bloggers in Southern California who have motorcycle accidents and don’t call motorcycle accident lawyers Los Angeles. Why not use the best? ;)

Got any gripes about blogs these days?

If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my FEED Thanks for visiting!

Blog Stats from February 1 to March 1, 2009
This is a monthly feature here where I measure my 3 blogs’ progress. My goal with this series is to provide 100% transparency. You can browse current and past entries in the CAN… category. First I list the CAN data for each blog. Then I reflect with a few notes.

Legend
C = Circulation, or backlinks
A = Analytics, or number of visitors
N = Net, or the amount of money earned by the blog

Circulation (# of Google backlinks)
Postcards from the Funny Farm: 174
Damien at the Speed of Life: 32
Dynamite Lesson Plan: 40
The Damien Riley Podcast: 0

Analytics (# of visits last 30 days)
Postcards from the Funny Farm: 6,659
Damien at the Speed of Life: 532
Dynamite Lesson Plan: 540
The Damien Riley Podcast: 302

Net
Postcards from the Funny Farm: $64.66
Damien at the Speed of Life: $24.00
Dynamite Lesson Plan: $8.05
The Damien Riley Podcast: 0

TOTAL: $106.84

Notes: Stats this month are pretty flat.  I like to see Postcards at 10-15,000 visitors a month and it was way below that.  The main reason for this is because a human only has enough energy in a day.  As I have taken on the weekly podcast and committed to a schedule of posting through the blogs throughout the week, I have taken away some of that energy from Postcards.  For what I do, that’s not the end of the world.  I am making money through Text-Link-Ads and sponsored posts on three blogs.  For me (and my kids who get ice cream off my PayPal card) I’d rather share the energy across multiple blogs.  I feel good about my posts and the energy that I am broadcasting through the podcast.  The backlinks are holding, 2 blogs went up, one went down and the podcast remains at zero.

If you have any good ideas on getting backlinks, do tell.  Advertisers do look at that criteria.

No goals this month other than to keep my posting schedule and do the usual stuff I have been doing for months. As always, I want to be open to your questions and comments through this series. If you think of something you want explained, think of this blog as my wireless alarm The comment box is waiting for you. You’ve seen my results and read my notes, what do you have to say? Is there something I missed you’d like to discuss? How were your CAN results last month?

If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my FEED Thanks for visiting!

I think the two words are oxymorons sometimes.  Even though that has been my experience, I will not give up on the good people can do in friendships.  Like most people, I have been betrayed and stabbed in the back at work.  At the same time though, I’ve met people who were truly good to the core and these people keep me trusting in humanity. I hate it when people make loaded comments and seemingly keep you in the dark about things.  I am the kind of person who will tell you if I have a problem with you.  Unfortunately, not everyone is like that.  Many people see advancement or recognition as more important than people.  While I enjoy advancement and recognition, I take care to make sure they are never my primary motivator for doing what I do (I teach elementary school).  The trick for me with trust at work is learning the paramaters of healthy boundaries.

Another issue to discuss along these lines is the issue of boasting at work.  One person may innocently share at the water cooler about his/her new tv and another will feel the need to describe in vivid details his/her home theater furniture.

Do you trust people at work?

This is a monthly feature here where I measure my 3 blogs’ progress. My goal with this series is to provide 100% transparency. You can browse current and past entries in the CAN… category.  First I list the CAN data for each blog.  Then I reflect with a few notes.

Legend:
C = Circulation, or backlinks
A = Analytics, or number of visitors and feed subscribers
N = Net, or the amount of money earned by the blog

1. Postcards from the Funny Farm, a psychology and inspiration blog

Circulation
Google Backlinks: 224
Yahoo! Backlinks: 6,884

Analytics
from 12-01-08 to 12-31-08
Visitors: 11,531
Page Views: 15,536
Feed Subscribers:  110

Net
$68.50

2. Damien at the Speed of Life, my online diary

Circulation
Google Backlinks: 36
Yahoo! Backlinks: 272

Analytics
from 12-01-08 to 12-31-08
Visitors: 603
Page Views: 1,520
Feed Subscribers: 17

Net
$30

3. Dynamite Lesson Plan, a teaching blog
Circulation
Google Backlinks: 224
Yahoo! Backlinks: 6,884

Analytics
from 12-01-08 to 12-31-08
Visitors: 217
Page Views: 503
Feed Subscribers:  14

Net
$25.01

NOTES: December was a great month for traffic.  I had close to 12,000 visitors which is a record by about 5,000 visitors.  So what happened?  Well, my static “Crazy Quotes” page has gained the 5th place on a Google search of those 2 terms.  I have been getting 300-500 hits on that page a day!  This has really helped the normal traffic and boosted the totals immensely.  A special post or page can carry your blog without a need for traffic driving methods.

You may recall last month I decided I was done with empty clicker traffic such as Entrecard.  It hurt me at first but very soon my other methods far surpassed Entrecard.  I just feel that the quality of blogs there is not high and most people who came to my sites just clicked for their points and took off like a bat out of hell.  I chose to work with Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks a little more.  You will see attractive buttons in all three sidevars linking to my profiles on the social networks I am working with.  Please add me to your lists!

My net suffered this month because I didn’t bother much with it.  I decided to put my mental health above straining over sponsored posts.  I did make a nice chunk of change without trying hard at all.

Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t note my recent Google PageRank increase on all three blogs.  They used to be 1, 0, 0 and last night after the roll through, they became 2, 2, 2. This will enable me to get more paying posts and potentially more advertisers.  I am a very happy camper as you all know I have been working very hard to bring my PageRank values up.  Still though, I believe the future is going to be based on 100% pure transparency of stats and not on any dictator of value like PageRank.  That’s the reason I will continue to post CAN stats on all my blogs through 2009.

As always, I want to be open to your questions and comments through this series.  The comment box is waiting for you.  You’ve seen my results read my notes, what do you have to say? Is there something I missed you’d like to discuss?  How were your CAN results last month?

The reviewer learns from the reviewee

Reviewing peer blogs can be an excellent way to see bogging from “outside the box.”

I’ve been reviewing blogs let me tell ya!

I started a thread over at Blog Catalog offering anyone a blog review as long as it came to me prior to January 9th, 2009. I have a little time off work and I thought it would be fun to meet some new bloggers and maybe help some people out if possible. The response so far has been positive.

Ever bite off more than you can chew?

Just kidding.  Kinda.  I’ve managed to do 12 reviews in 3 hours and my neck hurts LOL. I’ve tried to be positive and comment on the PROS more than the cons. Some people have asked me to really criticize though so in some cases that is what I’ve done. Even though I am behind, I am committed to reviewing everyone who asks prior to the 9th. It is a blast and I am learning while I review.  I thought I would summarize a few things here on my personal blog that seemed common issues to me anyway:

Here’s the common roadblocks I see …

• Too many ads on new blogs is annoying – My advice? Wait until your traffic warrants payment. Generally 15,000 visitors or more per month.

• Intentional Branding is crucial – The name is the thing. Really think before you put up a name or a tagline. It is your currency and it is all you ever have in blogging. Many seem haphazard.

• Many blogs have way too broad of a scope – How many malls does a town need? Be a STORE not a mall. I am reading so many blogs that have taglines like “a little of this a little of that and everything else.” It is YOUR job to tell us who you are and why YOU are worth reading.

I hope my words are helpful and not pissing people off over there. I aim to do right by my contribution to people’s art. If you’d like a review of your blog, I still have plenty of spare time before the 9th. Go ahead and submit it over at Blog Catalog and I’ll do my worst for ya!

Thanks to the Blog Catalog folks I’ve reviewed for giving me the privilege of reviewing your work.  If the 9th has passed and you’d like a review, ask me.  If I have the time I’d be happy to.

The title is a line from “O Holy Night,” my favorite Christmas song. I thought it a fitting way to start looking at my yearly blog stats which I am so very thankful for this Christmas.  Merry Christmas if you are one of the first readers!

I’ve learned more each day as this past year has whizzed by. I’ve learned how to be better dad, to meet my goals more efficiently at work, and last but not least: I’ve learned key strategies to be a better blogger. As I sat down to outline this post as I always do, I realized I could never fit all I’ve learned about blogging in one post. Better yet, I decided to craft it into a series of post. If you tune in each day until New Years Day 2009 (or when I run out of ideas) you will get all my blog tips, free of charge. If you are tuning in after the series is finished, I hope you find the set to be helpful to you in creating, maintaining, and enjoying a valuable blog.

Looking Back

Last year, I embarked upon a blog journey of the acronym C.A.N. The letters stood for the three goals I measured each month:

Circulation (inbound links)
Analytics (visitors)
Net (Income)

I made goals each month and reported them to you. You can find the last several months C.A.N. results here. This was a very efficient way to measure my own progress. Here is a chart showing how my three blogs Fared in traffic the past 4 months:

I think the smartest thing I have done this past year is to monitor progress toward goals through my monthly CAN post on my personal blog. My hope is that my lower two blogs will rise in their analytics and come close to my psych blog.

Moving Forward

Since this date last year and now, 12-24-08, I’ve earned a total of: $2,137 blogging. If you are interested how I made that chunk of change, here are the sources, in order of highest earnings:

Pay Per Post
PayU2Blog

Review Me
Buy Blog Reviews
Private Ads (Random people who’ve asked to advertise on my blog)
Text Link Ads

I made the majority of this past year’s income when my highest PR was a 4/10. A few months ago, Google reduced me to a 1/10 and much of my opportunities to make money disappeared. This is the irony of Google’s PageRank system: They penalize you for posting sponsored posts and yet the ones who sponsor you pull away when Google penalizes you. There is a solution but it is quite cumbersome: add the tag rel=”nofollow” to any paid link. I’ve been diligent at doing this, not only with paid links but also with links that are irrelvant. I have heard this can affect PageRank as well.

What’s an honest blogger to do?

The secret then, to what I hope is my future success is to always be relevant when linking (ie; no blogrolls, random “link love” posts), always write valuable posts with excellent content (paid or not), rel=”nofollow” ads and sponsored posts when the buyer allows it (note: does all nofollow), and measure my progress toward goals on my personal blog. Finally, as I said earlier, I hope to bring the analytics of my teaching blog and this blog, my personal blog, up to the region on the chart where the psych blog is. If I pull that off in 2009, I will feel I’ve truly accomplished something.

I have many other strategies I am playing with to hopefully put a plasma big screen on the tv stand. In future posts in this series I will discuss social media and networking along with personal habits like scheduling times to post and future time stamping posts. I’ll also be taking YOUR QUESTIONS.  I hope you’ll “tune in.”

Photo from Google Success

Soon I will be sharing my 2009 blogging goals and I am very excited about writing the post.  To make my goals I will use data of the past and aggregate it into a set of new goals I hope I can achieve.  The most successful blogs understand that good data analytics and goal setting are just as important as they are to something offline like a Subway franchise. Aside from numerical goals for traffic, monetization, and other measurable items, I will also be sharing the tools I am using to meet those goals.  Much like DerekSemmler.com does, I will be sharing the way I met my goals and the means I used to make them.  In blogging there are certain items one regards as “non-negotiable.”  For me and my blogging ventures, traffic is one of those.  I can do without many things, but not traffic.  Currently, these are the ideas I have to draw blog traffic in 2009:

• MyBlogLog
• Blog Catalog
• Social Media (up to 160 sites through SocialMarker.com)
• Reading and commenting via Google Reader.
• Entrecard I have decided, for ME and ME only, this service serves itself more than those who use it.
• Blog Carnivals
• Guest Blogging

What tools do you use to drive traffic?

I measure my 3 blogs’ progress toward goals. You can browse current and past entries in the CAN… category.

CAN stands for:
Circulation: Incoming links.
Analytics: # of visitors
Net: Money made or key takeaways. (Because money isn’t everything.)

I often use shorthand in referring to my blogs:
PFTFF: Postcards from the Funny Farm
DATSOL: Damien at the Speed of Life
DLP: Dynamite Lesson Plan

Here are my goals for October 2008:

PFTFF:
C – 5
A – 3000
N – $70

DATSOL:
C – 4
A – 700
N – $10

DLP:
C – 3
A – 500
N – $10

—

Note: A conservative yet challenging set of numbers.  Watch how I do in October.  Why not subscribe and watch it in real time? -or-

After much thought, I’ve decided to reinvent my mission statement.  The CAN page has changed and you’ll find the following(below) if you go there.

From the revised CAN page:

It has been said: “If you aim at nothing, you will surely hit it.”

That’s why I rate my own blogs monthly.

It’s also been said that if you do the right thing consistently, then the right things will happen to you.

I’m listing my mission statement here so you will better understand my what I do.  It is:

To create and innovate value for others.

These are my monthly “CAN” goals defined:

C- Circulation is measured by the number of posts and guestblogs I do each month.
A – Association is commenting I do on other blogs.
N – “Nods” are my Blog Safaris, or “link love” posts.

Each month I set new goals and record the results publicly.

Each category gets a percentage score then I add them together and divide by 300 to get the final rating.

I assign my blog a monthly rank value according to this scale:

• 90-100%=
• 75-89%=
• 51-74%=
• 30-50%=
• 11-30%=
• 0-10%=

Current and past monthly CAN. updates can be found here. I enjoy and welcome your comments on this topic.

My C.A.N. results on all three blogs in August 2008 are detailed below. Some things could have gone better, but that is an “as always” thing. More things went right than ever before. I am very happy about these results across all three blogs.

Check out how I did in August 2008.

As always, I welcome questions in the comment section. Please feel free to leave a comment or question.

An explanation of the C.A.N. blog rating system can be found here. I maintain 3 blogs. This post combines all their results in one place.

Postcards from the Funny Farm

1. Circulation: 10 incoming links(below). Goal was 4. Percentage= 250%

2. Analytics: 3376 uniques. Goal was 5000. Percentage= 68% :(

3. Net: $410. Goal was $250. Percentage=164%

4. Overall Rating: 268/300= 89%

——

Damien at the Speed of Life
1. Circulation: 1 incoming link. Goal was 1. (Thank you Katelynjane!) Percentage=100%
Blogging on a Postcard
2. Analytics: 787 visitors for the month. Goal was 600. :) Percentage= 131%
3. Net: $40. Goal was $20. Percentage= 150%
4. Overall Rating: 300/300= 100% :)

——

Dynamite Lesson Plan
1. Circulation: 1 incoming link. Goal was 1. Percentage= 100%
2. Analytics: 634 visitors for the month. Goal was 300. :) Percentage= 211%
3. Net: $0. Goal was $0. Percentage= 100%

4. Overall Rating: 300/300= 100%

——

Subscribe to this blog via and Watch how I do in September, as-I-do-it!

——

Okay, now for the important stuff: Goals for next month!

1. Circulation: Well, last month I had a low goal of one because I just started the online diary. Matters got more interesting (difficult) when I bought and transferred a domain. This blog is now www.damienriley.com (in case you didn’t know – do change your bookmarks. There is no need to change your RSS feed). Okay, enough blabbering. I am going to go big here and try to get 10 incoming links. Probably 5-6 guestblogs so if anyone out there is interested, hook me up … I always hook up back ;)
2. I knocked this one out of the park. I have learned that you guys are interested in my online diary! Social media helped me get the word out and a couple ezines interviewed me which brought in a lot of traffic. I have a daily “surfing system” in place that I think is going to double my analytics in September but I am not going to go too crazy just yet. It was 780 last month and my goal was 600. How about I double the difference and add it to the 780: 1140 unique visitors for the month.
3. Net: $50

——

Postcards from the Funny Farm

1. Circulation: I had over 10 incoming links last month and it was relatively easy. With the 2 newer blogs I really have to knock on doors to get those links but Postcards seems to generate them automatically. For that reason, I am going to challenge myself by doing guest blogs and links from other sites. I’m stepping up the circulation goal to 20 in September. Here goes nothin’!

2. Analytics: I missed my visitors goal by 32% last month. That’s when you have to get real and set a more realistic goal. I always have a feeling PFTFF will go huge any day now. I imagine it being up there with some of the big hitters. Alas, it hasn’t happened yet. For now, I will scale back the goal to a cool 4000 visitors in September.

3. Net: I beat my net goal by over $160. With a few other income opportunities through various means, I think I will go yet higher in September. Nonetheless, I don’t wan’t to get caught up in the “hard” money when I should be focusing on content and passively making the “easy” money. There will be a time to push up into the 700’s and higher but in September, we are not quite there yet. So, my net goal for September will be $400.

——

Dynamite Lesson Plan
1. Circulation: This month I think I can get some interest in what I do at DLP. I am going to try and get friends to do that. I am also going to try and find avenues where my posts are read more and possibly “quoted” ergot “linkback” ed. Despite the blog only being one month old, I’m shooting for a bold 3 incoming links. Help me out if you read something worth linking to! ;)
2. Analytics: My goal was 300 and I beat it. This is a tough blog to get people to, moreso than my other two. However, I am going to try and find some educational forums and linkback. I will also use the normal traffic building services you find in my sidebar. Still, my goal is a conservative 500 visitors in September.
3. Net: $40

——

Subscribe to this blog via and Watch how I do in September, as-I-do-it!